KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 — A Swiss tourist robbed of his ‘luxury watch’ in Italy, had it returned minutes later after it was discovered that the timepiece was a counterfeit.
The victim and a friend were drinking in Piazza Trieste e Trento, one of Naples’ main squares, when they were approached by a man who pointed a gun to the victim’s head and grabbed his watch before quickly walking off, CNN reported.
Another man made his way through the cafe’s outdoor seating area seven minutes later, returning the watch to the victim.
The entire incident was captured on the CCTV camera of Monidee Café.
In the footage, the two male tourists are seen sitting in the busy outdoor area of the bar, as people walk past on the busy sidewalk.
The robber approaches the duo, before pulling out a gun and holding it to the tourist’s head while ripping the watch off his wrist.
The incident was over in seconds, and the tourists look on in shock.
Footage taken just seven minutes later show the tourists, who decided to stay for their drink, being approached by another man in a white t-shirt, waving his arms, before giving them back the watch.
The reason — the watch was a counterfeit, not the priceless Richard Mille it was thought to be.
“They thought it was worth €300,000 (RM1.36 million),” Francesco Emilio Borrelli, a councillor for the Campania region for the Europa Verde party, who campaigns against crime in Naples, told the news network.
Borrelli lamented the square has been a hub of criminal activity for some time.
“I’ve been reporting problems in that piazza for some time, but there’s no surveillance. It’s a few feet from the prefecture, the superintendence and the army headquarters, and one of the most frequented squares by tourists. It’s one of the least safe areas of the city, and it should be one of the safest.” Borrelli said that there are “groups of delinquent youths on scooters” committing crimes in the area at night, who have become so emboldened that they don’t even bother disguising their identities.
“They don’t care. They’re using a pistol at 13, 14 years old — the guy who did this knew how to use it, he even pointed it at the head of the Swiss tourist.” “They take the watches to be resold immediately, but the people they take them to are good, and immediately realised it was not genuine.
